Trigger Finger Relief

How can I ease the pain of trigger finger?

Trigger finger is mainly categorized as having stiffness in your finger, as well as noticing a clicking or a popping when going from bending to an extended position. Sometimes it can be when you bend a finger and it gets stuck. That’s what we’re looking at today, and I’m going to show you some quick and easy exercises to do to help those muscles relax so that your finger can extend again.

How do you loosen a trigger finger?

1. The first stretch we’re going to do for your fingers is called a finger extensor stretch. You’ll need something solid underneath you, and you’re going to lay your hand flat on the surface palm down. Then you’re going to start raising up the affected finger and lift it up as high as it can go while keeping your palm and other fingers flat on the surface below you. You are going to keep lifting the affected finger up as high as it can go until the other fingers on that hand start to raise up as well. You are going to repeat this a couple of times until you feel a nice stretch in the finger muscles.
2. The next stretch we’re going to do is a palm press. You need either a tennis ball, a massage ball, or something similar. You’re going to put it right in the center of your palm and wrap your fingers around it and squeeze. That’s going to help work out those muscles to release the spasm. You’re going to keep squeezing and then relaxing several times then switch hands.
3. Now for the third stretch we’re going to do you will need a rubber band. This is called the rubber band stretch. You’re going to put the rubber band around all of your fingers on the affected hand and you’re going to start opening your fingers and using your muscles to work against the force of the rubber band.  If it’s too easy, you can either get thicker rubber bands or add more rubber bands. We are going to keep repeating this until you feel the muscles relax.
4. The fourth stretch we’re going to do is our thumb to fingertips. What you’re going to do is take your thumb pad, start with your pointer finger, and press your thumb pad to the pad on your pointer finger. That’s going to help get a really good stretch on those affected fingers and those muscles.
5. Now the last stretch we’re going to do is called the finger spread. What we’re going to do is just start with your fist balled up, and then you’re going to open all the way wide and then close again. You’re going to keep repeating this until that finger can do it or you can feel those muscles start to relax.

How can I treat trigger finger at home?

These stretches will be super easy for you to do at home, as long as you have the tools available to you.  You will need a flat surface, a ball, and a rubber band. Those are pretty easily accessible, and they should help you work out those muscles in your hand that are causing trigger finger. If you like this post, please leave a comment down below, and feel free to share it with those that you know.

To watch Dr. Kara demonstrate the exercises you can watch the entire video here